
LESSONS IN GALATIANS.
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strange if, by the time all the rest got into a live spiritual
condition, the specially erring one were not also restored.
But let no unsanctified, unspiritual man presume to try to
restore an erring brother. If he does, the work will be done
in the most bungling manner. Christ said, "For their sakes
I sanctify Myself, that they also might be truly sanctified."
John 17:19, margin.
7.
"In the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted." Remember that no temptation comes to
any one but such as is common to all men. Our brother is
the same flesh as we are, and we are liable to the same sin
that has caused his fall. Christ helps us, because He places
Himself by our side, as sharer of our weakness, and oppressed
by the same temptations. If we would help a sinner, we
can do far more by confessing to him our own weakness,
perhaps our own fall into the very same sin that has snared
him, and telling how the Lord gave us the victory, than we
can by any stern rebuke. He knows that he is a sinner, but
does not know the way out of his trouble. Spend more
lime telling him what he does not know than in telling him
what he already knows.
8.
Christ bears the sin of the world. Whether we acknowl-
edge Him or not, our sins are on Him, and He bears them.
The law is in His heart; it is His life, and it is love: The law
of Christ is that of self-giving. "Love worketh no ill to his
neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." We can
fulfil the law only by coming into "the fellowship of His
sufferings." Christ associates His true followers with Him-
self as saviours of the world. We are, therefore, to bear the
burdens of others' sins in so real a manner as to lift the sins
from their shoulders.
9.
"If a man think himself to be something, when he is
nothing." Better rendered, "though he is nothing." in the-
Greek the participle is used, "If a man think himself to' be
something, being nothing." We are nothing. "Every man
at his best state is altogether vanity." Ps. 39:5. Compared
with God, all nations together are "less than nothing, and
vanity." Isa. 40:17. Therefore, if any man think himself to
be something, he deceiveth himself. That is not the way to
bear one another's burden of sin. Christ, the Sin-bearer,
says, "I Can of Mine own self do nothing." John 5:30. The
thought of the- first. two verses is still continued. We bear
one another's burden of sin,, thus relieving him of it, and